Marketing TextThe EMME project is born out of the will to transfer a “Made in Italy” initiative in countries other than Italy (Spain, Greece and Romania). The model that is at the heart of the transfer is the one developed by the Management Forum which is a project of analysis, in-depth study and dissemination of management culture which has now reached its third year of activity.
The initiative that is being proposed intends to transfer the structure, methodology and tools adopted from the MF in the three European partners with the goal of reproducing the model and making it usable in different contexts and territories.
The EMME project sets forth the following goals: 1) to transfer, update and match, also linguistically, the MF model to other realities; 2) to integrate the model with specific contents; 3) to disseminate and guarantee the use of the tools, operative modes and training contents by other national and European realities. Once reviewed and updated, the following shall be made available and transferable: research tools, guidelines for the definition of distinguishing features; grids for the identification of strong and weak points of management; structured questionnaires; lists of of key issues for the conduction of focus groups.
By transferring the MF model it will then be possible to promote a broader comparison on management culture, the strong and weak points of the competences that managers of innovative SMEs’ must have in order to positively impact the competitive success of their organization and the local development.

SummaryThe project aims to transfer and adapt to three different European countries the model, methodology and results implemented in the frame of ‘Management Forum’ initiative, which was launched by Fondirigenti at a national level with the purpose of analysing, detecting and communicating the characteristics of Italian business and management style. The E.M.M.E. project intends to fulfil the following objectives: 1) to update and adapt the Management Forum model, also to other languages; 2) to integrate the model with specific contents; 3) to arrange focus meetings to investigate and disseminate the model.
Work programme
The activities to be implemented in the innovation transfer project are the following:
1)Preliminary research for adaptation of model and methodologies to different national settings.
2)Transfer and implementation of the model by stakeholders and by managers.
3)Development of IT tools.
4)Dissemination and exploitation of results.

DescriptionThe EMME project is born out of the will to transfer a “Made in Italy” initiative in countries other than Italy. The model that is at the heart of the transfer is the one developed by the Management Forum which is a project of analysis, in-depth study and dissemination of management culture which has now reached its third year of activity. The structure of the MF is based on four macro areas of activity and related products: Research; Analysis; Good Practices and Dissemination.
At the base of the transfer there is not a single product but the structure, the methods and the tools used during the MF activity that will be applied, tested and transferred through this new, Europe-wide scale initiatives thanks to the participation of the project partners. Specifically, we are referring to a well-defined structure with desk research, field research, analysis and dissemination. The transfer shall allow to:
• provide territorial contextualization of management styles
• define points of strength and weakness of the competences that innovative SMEs’ managers must have in order to have a positive impact on the competitive success of their organization and on local development
• identify a tool and method for managers’ continuing education consistently with the experimented model and the results achieved.
Comparing it with the basic project, the added value of the EMME project depends precisely on the opportunity for a broadened discussion on management culture. The set up of the comparative analysis and the assessment of territorial influences on management styles are both particularly fit for the European dimension of this project and allow to anticipate broad interest and a high potential both of transferability and of improvement of the innovative model that is being proposed through the exchange of experiences among participants. The interaction among participants shall be facilitated by the presence of an information technology platform that will allow also the access on a volunteer basis by other potential users.
The model shall be transferred to a European sample group of SME managers and entrepreneurs, in the manufacturing and service fields. The choice of companies shall be subordinated to some performance indicators such as capacity for innovation; internationalization; agreement-building, as well as development of the financial side, and presence on the stock exchange market. The transfer also includes a widened participation by successive “concentric circles” to all the main actors committed to defining a common “corporate culture” such as the system of representatives’ associations; human resource managers; management schools; universities and research centers.

Product informationThe innovation that the partners intend to transfer is the output of a research activity, including mutual exchange, in-depth analysis and dissemination, carried out in the past three years called ‘Management Forum’. The structure of Management Forum is based on four fields of activity such as: Research, Investigation, Best Practices, Dissemination.
The research has been addressed to increase the knowledge of characteristics and training needs of Italian management group and to contribute to export the Italian managerial model abroad through an international benchmarking activity. The research outlined the peculiar competence of Italian managers and assessed the strength and weakness point of the managerial profile through a survey tool (questionnaire).
The survey has been carried out also through semi-directed interviews to Italian companies, through workshops and focus group meetings, in which the core issues of competitiveness were dealt with, such as: innovation, internationalization, cooperation, generation shift, business finance, gender leadership, access to capital markets, corporate social responsibility as a key to growth and development. The focus group meetings have been organised in different Italian regions to check any territorial influence on the business model and management style, to assess the national results into different settings and to welcome new inputs for further investigations coming from the participants’ feedback and interaction.

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